Maureen Smith - Supermum and Multi-Tasker

She raised six kids single-handedly, among them a best-selling children’s author, even co-writing her own best-seller with him. But Maureen Smith is famous in her own right as a solo ‘Supermum’ of the 70s.

Maureen, now 86 and in care in Christchurch, was renowned in Queenstown for her kindness and generosity, despite working 10 to 12-hour days just to feed her family. Her husband left in 1974, just two years after the family moved to Queenstown, which was a devastating blow in a time when limited financial help was available.

However, Maureen worked hard, she had to – mostly as a cook in local hotels and waitressing at cafes and restaurants.

Her sons - local children’s author Craig Smith, of Wonky Donkey fame, and his eldest brother, Dale Smith, recall their mother always cooking and caring for those in need. This even earned her a special civic honour for voluntary service from Mayor David Bradford in 1993.

She was also the local ‘Queen of Pavlova’, not only in her café, but at home where she baked winning pavs for hotels and restaurants.

Born in Nelson, polio left her with scoliosis, but she went on to win Nelson Sprint Champion multiple times at high school. Her parents moved to Invercargill, Maureen working there at 20 where she met her first husband. They moved to Alexandra, their youngest of six, Craig, born in Clyde in 1972 before the family moved to Queenstown.

Maureen worked turning down beds at Esplanade Hotel, and at Travelodge, preschooler Craig beside her at work in a large cardboard box playing with toys. “If I escaped, she knew I could only reach the third-floor button in the elevator. A few times I got to the lake across the road until Mum got Sue Dennis on reception to keep tabs on me,” Craig grins.

Maureen applied for a state house, and they got the first of two built in Douglas Street at Frankton.

She also waitressed at Cardrona Café in the Mall, before sheer hard work saw her open her own café, The Green Apple Coffee Lounge in SSB Arcade, importing one of NZ’s first Italian espresso machines, for about $14,000, in the early 80s.

After selling that Maureen opened Frenz Café at Frankton Corner beside what was then the Four-Square supermarket. “She worked her butt off. I remember sleeping on the floor in the coffee lounge while she baked until 12.30am, being woken up to go home, school the next day,” Craig says. She was renowned for her homemade baking, sandwiches and soups, cheese rolls and scones. “Locals would come in and grab their food then I was sent to drop accounts under their door each week.”

Maureen would be constantly looking for Craig, who by 10 had escaped to feed the fish in Queenstown Bay, stealing a few coins from the Rotary wishing well on his way past.

She’d already dived in and saved him from drowning in the Shotover River when the family initially lived in an old house at Arthurs Point, then moving to Douglas Street with its unpleasant aroma from Dillon’s Chicken Farm.

She was hard to outsmart, hiring a security guard when a thief repeatedly stole her early morning milk and cheese delivery from outside her café. He never stole again.

As a teen, eldest son Dale had ordered his mum to disown him if she ever spotted him in the pub underage – the legal drinking age then 20. “She’d purposely come up and embarrass me,” Dale says. However, that backfired when she invited him to meet her at the prestigious Travelodge Lounge Bar. (Teens could be accompanied by parents.) “That was one place you never got caught underage by Sergeant Maloney,” Dale grins. “He turned red in the face when he saw me and demanded an explanation. I nervously pointed to Mum as my parent but when he asked her to verify that, Mum honoured my request, pretending she’d never seen me before in her life,” Dale laughs.

Every Thursday for about 10 years she’d volunteer at Senior Citizen’s cooking and supplying dinner for the seniors for free.

While cook at the Maternity Home in Sydney Street, Maureen also cooked extra meals for neighbouring Queenstown centenarian Molly Anderson, who lived until 103.

The district council was about to demolish the dilapidated historic Gardens band rotunda in the mid-90s until Maureen and second husband Bill Thomson said, ‘No way!’, launching a fundraising campaign to save it. They got the Lions Club on board, also donating themselves.

Her kids say the tight-knit community always watched out for them and their mum, from Travelodge manager Lawton Wilkinson sending carpet and carpet-layers to their house during hotel renovation to free chips at the Migias’s Town Fish Supply and meals at Taki’s Steakhouse. “Our house had no carpet, an ice box in winter with no insulation,” Craig says.

After retiring to Christchurch to care for her ailing mum, Maureen ran her mobile coffee truck at events and in 2010 she co-authored the #1-selling children’s book Willbee The Bumblebee with Craig. He’s also written a moving, personal song in honour of their mum, who he says stuck by them through heartbreak and hard times.